Vegan Rabbit considers Choose Cruelty-Free a fairly reliable indication of proof of a brand’s cruelty-free status. Their bunny logo get points off because they don’t conduct audits on the companies they certify, which means they can’t actually verify if a company is compliant. They do, however, maintain the strictest requirements of all cruelty-free certification programs.
Background
Choose Cruelty-Free, a non-profit which was founded in 1993 and based in Australia, awards the Not Tested on Animals rabbit logo to companies that meet its strict set of criteria.
Choose Cruelty-Free requires:
- No testing on animals for at least 5 years prior to applying for certification
- A signed legally-binding contract not to conduct or commission any animal tests on ingredients, formulations, or finished products
- No selling products anywhere with laws requiring animal testing for finished products (ie: mainland China)
- Adherence to a strict policy on animal-derived ingredients (details in next section)
- Parent company and all subsidiary brands must also adhere to these rules
Strengths
Vegan Rabbit considers Choose Cruelty-Free to have the most strict cruelty-free certification requirements because they go beyond simply determining whether a brand and its suppliers test on animals in two important ways:
- They won’t certify brands whose parent companies and fellow subsidiary brands are not also 100% cruelty-free
- They have a strict policy on animal-derived ingredients
Specifically, Choose Cruelty-Free won’t certify a company if any of its products contain ingredients:
- Derived from an animal killed specifically for the extraction of that ingredient
- Forcibly extracted from a live animal in a manner that occasioned pain or discomfort
- Derived from any wildlife
- That are by-products of the fur industry
- That are slaughterhouse by-products of a commercially significant value (meaning the animal was not killed specifically for the ingredient, but that the ingredient was available due to the animal being killed for other purposes)
No other cruelty-free certification program makes such black and white distinctions about animal-derived ingredients or the cruelty-free status of parent company, so this is a big deal.
Weaknesses
The Choose Cruelty-Free program has one glaring weakness that’s impossible to ignore: they don’t actually check if companies are being honest when they claim to be cruelty-free, meaning they don’t conduct their own audits of the companies they certify.
“Companies that have applied for accreditation by CCF have signed a legally-binding contract to the effect that what they have said in their application is the truth about their practices. CCF has never accepted ‘Statements of Assurance’ – the company has filled in a detailed questionnaire and signed the contract.” — Choose Cruelty-Free via their website
This means that the pressure for brands to remain honest in their cruelty-free pledge comes from the threat of legal action if news were to break about a brand’s non-compliance, which means that the enforcement of Choose Cruelty-Free’s requirements rests exclusively on consumers.
A legally-binding contract is more effective than simply a “pledge” to remain cruelty-free, but it’s not nearly as effective as random independent audits of a company’s complete supply chain.
Other Areas of Concern
Brands that are included in the Choose Cruelty-Free program may sell products that contain animal ingredients. Though CCF has a strict policy regarding animal-derived ingredients, it is not a vegan policy.
Furthermore, even if companies are certified by Choose Cruelty-Free, that doesn’t mean you’ll see the Choose Cruelty-Free bunny logo displayed on their packaging. Unfortunately, there is a licensing fee to use the logo, which not all companies can afford.
This is why I maintain my own cruelty-free & vegan list which includes brands with and without logo-licensing and only lists brands that are 100% vegan and 100% cruelty-free at every level, from parent company to subsidiary to ingredient manufacturer.
Find out how Choose Cruelty-Free compares to other cruelty-free logos.